On Sun 11 Feb 2007 15:56:23 -0500 Ken Heard wrote:
> A few weeks ago I installed Etch RC1 on a Toshiba Tecra 8000 P2 laptop.
> The installation itself went without hitch, and I set about customizing
> it to my taste and installing various applications. For example I
> replaced Gnome with KDE, as I had been using KDE since I converted to
> Linux and don't want at this stage to lean a new desktop environment.
>
> Then, on 6 February -- completely out of the blue -- I booted the
> computer, which I had set to log on automatically to my user. Instead
> however of seeing the KDE desktop, I got an xterm screen, which I
> assumed was a fail-safe xterm session. When I tried to use it, it did
> not respond; the machine hung. I was however able to log in, both as
> root and my user, on the ordinary terminals, ctl-alt-F1 to F6.
>
> It seems to me that the xserver-xorg is broken somehow. I tried
> aptitude from the command line but could find no broken packages. The
> only configuration option I know about is "dkpg-reconfigure
> xserver-xorg" which was of no help.
>
> Another change I noticed that on this fatal boot-up, both the
> avahi-daemon, whatever that is, and the HP linux printing and imaging
> system failed to load.
>
> To make matters worse, an hour later I booted my desktop and met
> with the same result: a fail-safe terminal emulator and a hung machine.
> This failure happened to a P4 box on which I had installed Sarge and KDE
> in June 2005 when Sarge first came out. Other than a few glitches
> encountered on initial installation, it has worked perfectly ever since.
>
> In this case I was also able to access the box from a native terminal,
> and so was able to write to zip750 disks all my document files.
>
> Again I used aptitude from the command line and also found no broken
> packages, this time the x-server being xfree86 rather than xorg. I did
> however discover that aptitude wanted to upgrade xserver-xfree86 to
> xserver-xfree86-dbg and also upgrade some of the dependencies. Two
> lines of the syslog read as follows:
>
> Feb 8 09:04:41 localhost kdm_greet[2943]: Can't open default user face
> Feb 8 09:04:47 localhost kdm: :0[2948]: Session
> "/etc/kde3/kdm/Xsession" execution failed: Permission denied
>
> Unfortunately however I was unable to do any upgrades, because on this
> boot-up the the operating system -- for the first time ever -- was
> unable to connect to the LAN.
>
> As always, the NIC was detected and the driver installed. It could not
> connect to the network. The system tried to connect to the network five
> times, each time reporting "Network is down", when I knew it was not.
>
> My first instinct was to check the hardware. The card was properly
> seated in the mainboard, and all the cables and connections worked with
> another computer and the print server. I swapped the NIC with another
> one of the same make and model from another desktop. The one swapped to
> that other desktop worked. The desktop previously reporting "network is
> down" still so reports with the swapped NIC which had worked before in
> the other desktop.
>
> The LAN, by the way, is restricted to our residence where only two
> desktops, one laptop, a print server and a gateway-switch are connected
> to it. This installation is only ever used by my spouse and me.
>
> It is particularly serious that both my previously operational computers
> failed at the same time. Fortunately I had a third desktop, on which no
> operating system had been installed. My first task was to install Etch
> RC1 on it so I had access to the web and could send and receive e-mails
> and install my document files on it. The necessity to make these
> installations accounts for the delay in reporting my problem to the
> Debian user list.
>
> My first priority is to get the laptop with Etch on it working again, as
> I am departing a week hence on an extended trip where I will need it.
> But I would like to get the desktop with Sarge working again too. I
> will be grateful to anybody who can tell me how to do so.
Since Sunday 11 Feb 2007, with considerable help from several people on
the list, notably Ken West, I have been trying to get the Xserver to
work when logged in as my user on both computers, so far without success.
On both boxes however, after I ran "/etc/init.d/kdm stop" and then ran
"startx", the following two lines were returned twice:
Using authority file /home/ken/.Xauthority
Writing Authority file /home/ken/.Xauthority
After those four lines the following two more lines were returned:
/etc/X11/X is not executable
xinit: Server error
However, I was able to boot a usable xserver by running "startx" as
root. I was consequently able to remove from the computer which could
not be connected to the network all my data files. (The laptop did not
have any data files in it.)
I had a third computer, another desktop without an operating system
installed on it. In order to have a useable box I installed thereon
Etch RC1 and transferred to it my data files. It is this computer I
have been using since.
However, as I will need an operational laptop by 21 Feb, On 13 Feb I
decided I could not afford the luxury any more of trying to get the
laptop x-server to work on my user, and so proceeded to do a completely
fresh installation, first by reformatting the hard drive and then using
the latest build of the Etch testing netinstall.
I have difficulty believing that losing use of the x-server on both my
operational computers within hours of each other on 6 Feb was
coincidental. Only on the desktop however, which had Sarge installed
(the laptop had Etch), was connection to the network lost; I still had a
useable network connection on the laptop. Perhaps the fact that the
network connection on the desktop was and is a NIC; whereas on the
laptop the NIC is in fact a PCMCIA card. Fortunately, as of today the
NIC card now works.
Since I was able to set up another desktop and now have an operational
laptop, I have decided to abandon use of the desktop with the failed
x-server and NIC. When I have time next April I will install Etch on it
after a complete reformatting of the hard drive.
Presumably by then the Etch RC2 installer will be ready, if not a
stable Etch. I understand the declaration of Etch as stable is coming,
but so is Christmas.
I need to be convinced that my computer problems were not caused by
some external source -- a virus or some such. If not so caused, my now
unused third box with Sarge which still lacks a fully working x-server
is still available for further experimentation.
Ken
--
To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
